Left-wing alliance: Mesterhazy the prime minister candidate

Budapest, January 8 (MTI) – The Socialist party will give the prime minister candidate for the alliance with E-PM under an agreement sealed on Wednesday, Gordon Bajnai, leader of the electoral alliance E-PM, told a press conference.

The candidate is likely to be Socialist leader Attila Mesterhazy, who had been put forward as a candidate earlier, Bajnai said, adding that E-PM would accept Mesterhazy as a candidate.

A [Socialist party] congress is needed to confirm the candidacy, Mesterhazy told the joint press conference.

The main opposition Socialists and the E-PM electoral alliance agreed on Wednesday to put forward a joint list for the parliamentary election this spring, Mesterhazy said.

A proposal will be made to the Democratic Coalition (DK) to join the list, he added. Mesterhazy said he did not think it likely that they could not reach agreement with Ferenc Gyurcsany’s [DK] party.

Bajnai added that the proposal would be a fair one which DK has a fundamental responsibility to accept, given that they had long advocated the joint list and candidacy.

No details were revealed on the actual names on the list or how the renewed agreement would influence the distribution of constituencies, as this would depend on talks with DK, too. Notably, it is not yet decided how many of the 106 constituencies would go to a DK candidate and at which party’s expense. Mesterhazy only said that he was preparing for fast talks with the DK. He also declined to comment on whether Gyurcsany himself would be on the joint list.

Asked whether he would contact Gabor Fodor’s Liberal Party or the Social Democratic Party led by Andor Schmuck, Mesterhazy said he would move one step at a time, and after talking to the DK it should be considered whether “further efforts were needed to secure the success of this political formation”. However he added that among the parties mentioned only DK had “actual voter support”.

Bajnai said he had goals rather than ambitions and now he put his ambitions for premiership behind the goal of changing the government “to return Hungary to the camp of normal, prospering European countries”. He added that he had asked nothing in return for this decision. He denied speculations about a third prime minister candidate put forward by E-PM at talks. “There was no casting,” he said.

In late August, the Socialists and E-PM agreed to field joint candidates but separate party lists in the spring election. They said they would not have a joint prime minister candidate. This agreement had been sharply criticised by the DK ever since.